Britney Spears' Pop Rivalries, From Christina Aguilera To Lady Gaga

'She's sort of left a lot of these girls in the dust,' one Spears expert tells MTV News.
By Jocelyn Vena, with additional reporting by Christina Garibaldi


Lady Gaga and Britney Spears
Photo: Getty Images

For more than a decade, Britney Spears has been pitted against some of her pop peers, including Madonna, Jessica Simpson, Christina Aguilera and, most recently, Lady Gaga.

She's publicly buried the hatchet with Madonna and Aguilera — sharing a three-way kiss with the pair at the 2003 VMAs — and never really paid much attention to the hype of other so-called rivalries.

"Since the beginning of her career, she's always been pitted against whatever big pop person there is," MTV News' Jim Cantiello explained.

"I feel like artists have had rivalries with Britney and she hasn't really had rivalries with them," Entertainment Weekly's Leah Greenblatt added. "She's sort of left a lot of these girls in the dust."

While Brit has managed to stay on top all these years, a new pop princess might give her a run for her money. "I think Gaga's already been talking about what she is gonna do. She has said that her album is going to be more than just dance songs, and I'm guessing that Britney might be making a different type of album, which is great, because in that sense, Brit and Gaga don't have to compete," Perez Hilton said of any potential new rivalry. "They're each doing their own very distinct thing."

Greenblatt agreed: "It just seems like they're operating on different wavelengths right now. I mean, Britney's proven herself over such a longer period of time than Gaga has. I don't think that Gaga can just wipe her off the pop royalty board."

At the end of the day, it's not at all about competition, Cantiello explained. "Britney's going in the super dance route and Gaga's doing a super personal album," he said. "It comes a point where we've got to stop comparing the two."

Plus, it's hard for these two to really ever compete with one another, since Gaga has admitted to waving the Britney flag. "I was 13 when Britney became a star," she said in 2009. "I was amazed by the level of the superfan that Britney created. I want to bring back the feeling that I used to feel."

Who has been Britney's worthiest adversary? Share your thoughts in the comments!

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Pink isn't a mama quite yet, but the pop star is already spending a lot of time thinking about the values she wants to pass onto her child. On her blog, Pink, 31, talks about how being pregnant shaped her new song and video, a ballad about self-acceptance called "F***in' Perfect." In the video, a young woman (played by Napoleon Dynamite's Tina Majorino) remembers being bullied throughout her child and teen years, and how she reacted by starving and cutting herself. The woman in the video manages to save her own life by channeling her feelings into art, and learning to accept herself rather than fitting in. At the end of the emotionally charged music video, we see the heroine tucking a little girl into bed.

"Making this video was a very emotional experience for me, as was writing this song," Pink writes. "I have a life inside of me, and I want her or him to know that I will accept him or her with open and loving and welcoming arms. And though I will prepare this little munchkin for a sometimes cruel world, I will also equip this kid to see all the beauty in it as well."

Pink adds that her fans have taught her how to accept herself and others with an open heart. "There are good people in this world that are open-minded, and loving," she writes. "There are those that accept us with all of our flaws. I do that with my fans/friends, and I will do that with my child, whoever they decide to be."

Pink, whose songs have always had a strong message about female empowerment, writes that she hopes this song encourages depressed young people to hang in there and get the help they need.

"Cutting, and suicide, two very different symptoms of the same problem, are gaining on us. (the problem being; alienation and depression. the symptoms; cutting and suicide). I personally don't know a single person who doesn't know at least two of these victims personally," she writes. "It's a problem, and it's something we should talk about… I support the kids out there that feel so desperate/numb/powerless, that feel unseen and unheard, and can't see another way.. I want them to know I'm aware. I have been there. I see them. Sometimes that's all it takes."

"F***in Perfect" has a message reminiscent of the Christina Aguilera song "Beautiful"; it contains lines like, "Change the voices in your head/ Make them like you instead." It's a powerful message, especially when the pressure on kids to be "prefect" is more intense than ever. Watch the video below (warning: language).

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